Why like to claim our sport is inexpensive, but those costs of race entries can run up. Here are some basic tips that we have used to cut down on the cost of races.
Well, it's my second week of recovery from Burning River 100, but since I have a busy early fall schedule with Barkley Fall Classic on September 17 and Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on October 2nd, I don't have too long before I need to start getting in some serious training again. I'm still nursing a sore heel from BR100, so I need to take things slowly at least for a few more days. I'll chat more about my recovery as we get closer to those races.
When this sport gets expensive
I was telling a non-runner the idea of the blog and the podcast, and he looked at his shoes and said "besides these, what are the main costs for a runner?" and that's often the thought. Running is a cheap activity compared to, say, kayaking, which I also enjoy. To just be a runner, it does only take some basic shorts, shirts, maybe some hydration gear and a good pair of shoes. But once you've gotten involved in the sport of it and spending time with other folks that love running, then you start looking at a whole series of expenses. When you start looking at ultramarathons (and some marquis marathons), the entry itself because a large part of the expense.
When it comes to spending money on races, the three main categories that I think of are accommodations, race entries, and travel to and from the race. We covered the cost of accommodations here and we plan on covering drive versus fly decisions later. Today is all about race entries. We all know how expensive these can be, especially 100 milers which can cost easily $300 per race or more. So, here are three ways to shave a little off of the cost.
My Race entry costs for 2022 (so far)
So far for 2022, it looks like I've spent about $1500 on race entries. Since I'm running about 10 races per year that breaks down to about $150 per race, but you'll notice a ton of variation here. All of these are at least at the marathon distance, as I'm sure plenty of 5ks and 10ks on this list would bring the average down.
The ones that really stand out in terms of cost per mile comparison (which is the way I like to look at these) are 1. Barkley Fall Classic. This race is a big fundraiser for local school sports and it is always oversubscribed, so it's not surprising that it comes in at over $5 per mile. But that's also assuming that it's actually a 50k (which it clearly isn't). The cheaper ones are all those less than $100 including the Mississippi 50m (less than $2 per mile) and the Scorpion Trail 50k, which comes in less than $3 per mile. Burning River though it's expensive overall at nearly $300, it is still less than $3 per mile since that's the 100 miler price, but my another local 100, the Loup Garou in December is less than $200 and is the cheapest 100 I'll run this year.
Book early and often
One tried and true way to save money on just about anything is to do it before the rush. Race entries are like anything else here, but sometimes you can get particularly good early-bird deals. One recent one for me is the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. I had signed up with the website a year before the race, so I happened to get email that announced that they were going to run a special deal to celebrate the 40th anniversary for that day only race entry for the marathon would only be $40. I use a basic rubric where I think of the dollar per mile figure. A 100 mile race that costs $300 is at the same price point for me as an $80 or so marathon--make sense? So a $40 marathon is like getting a 100 miler for $150, which is a pretty good deal. My goal is to see if I can ever get a race for less than $1 per mile. The first one that I've signed up for that meets that criteria is the Mississippi 50 trail run 100 mile version which is usually a good deal for the 50 milers at $80, but now we have that same price for a 100 miler!
Look for Discounts around Holidays
Every year on National Running Day (June 1st) the RocknRoll marathon series has a big sale on their races where you can save as much as 60% off the current price for some of their more popular races. One of the goals of this website is to become an aggregater of these types of sales. There are a couple local marathons to me, the Louisiana and Gulf Coast Marathons that also have Memorial Day and other sales throughout the year. It's a pain to watch out for if you're not already on their email lists and sometimes it's a pain even when you are.
Trade Your Time for Money
While that sounds like a job, it doesn't feel like work if you're doing what you love. Several race series have published discounts for a certain amount of time volunteered at races. Tejas Trails has a page published that gives you all the details about how you can get discounts on their races by volunteering. They offer free parking and camping fees; free swag, etc. For 6 to a 11 hours of volunteering, you get entry into a 25k or or shorter half off. For 12-23 hours, you get a 6hr event of 50k for free and for 24-47 hours you get a 9 1/2hr or 100k or shorter for free. Ultraexpeditions, which runs several races in Texas, also describes that volunteers can get discounts, but doesn't go into details on their website.
Even if folks don't have that information published, it doesn't hurt to go ahead and write the race director to see if there can be some sort of discount that can be arranged if they have another race. While there's always the risk of being injured or having obligations that prevent you from being able to take advantage of the discount, the worst case scenario is that you've donated your time to the sport we loved: not too bad. I volunteered at "A Lousiana Summer Night" last week in Lafayette Louisiana. This was a 10 hour race and I got there about 3 hours before race start to help with parking (which was all single file on a gravel road). Once the race started, I did the typical filling of water bottles. This was a blast! I described it to my son as being like a bartender, where people are always happy to see you at your job. The night was long as it went from 8pm to 6am, but I felt great afterwards (though a bit sleepy), and I got to support a group of amazing runners in Southwest Louisiana. Definitely worth the effort!
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